Tuesday, October 18, 2016

An insider's guide to Beijing: caged birds, smog and internet satire

A wake-up call … old Beijingers keep birds caged in the hutongs.
Photograph: Jens Schott Knudsen
Old Beijingers have a hobby of keeping caged birds that sing – their
bright, melodic chirps are a pleasant wake-up call, even if you’re not
an early riser. In the narrow hutongs,
their tones echo alongside the boisterous conversations of residents,
the thick Beijing accent unmistakable anywhere. But these oases are
never far away from wide-scale chaos: bad urban planning from the Mao
era means that huge roads cut across the fabric of the city, so the
sound of cars is a constant in the capital...https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/oct/17/insiders-guide-beijing-caged-birds-smog-internet-satire